Electronics circuit diagram/schematic drawing softwares list

This article is an attempt to list out all available softwares for circuit drawing. I have taken into consideration many criteria before making this list. You know there are free softwares, paid softwares, sharewares and there will be variations in quality of softwares, user friendliness, complexities etc. I have tried to include as many software as possible. For instance if there is a tool that helps only in basic drawing but is really user friendly so that a beginner can draw electronics circuit diagram, then I would consider adding that particular software. Circuit drawing or electronic schematic drawing is not a hard to learn stuff, you can make it better with practice. Well there are some standard practices that you have to keep in mind while you draw. We will write an article regarding the standard practices to follow while drawing circuit diagrams.

Web Based EDA Tools – When the world around us is shifting towards the cloud, there are a handful of powerful EDA tools available on the cloud as well. Here we are listing a couple of web based EDA tools for you to try out.

1. EasyEda– is one such a tool based on the cloud platform which facilitates schematic drawing, spice simulation and PCB layout. They have over 70,000+ readily available schematic in their web database along with 15,000+ Pspice libraries. Since the application is built on cloud, it gives the convenience of mobility and portability. Another advantage that comes with a cloud application is cross device compatibility.

Lets list out free circuit diagram drawing softwares first.

Free circuit drawing softwares list:-

PCB123 – This is a free circuit drawing software from Sunstone. You can do almost all your needs from design to build using PCB 123. PCB123 provides 500,000 parts with great search functionality to access all the parts while drawing. Datasheets of select parts are available. The interesting feature of this software is “real time” search for availability of parts from Digi-Key. Well, give it a try and give your opinions. After all it’s a free software from a reputed company like Sunstone.

Xcircuit – is a free schematic drawing software from OpenCircuit designs, which is made for Unix/Linux environment. You can use this software on Windows if you have the X-server running or Windows API. This open source project is aimed at developing output schematics that are of high quality, ready for instant publication. Many versions of the software are available. You have to go through the tutorial thoroughly before you start using it.

TinyCad – is a schematic drawing software for Windows from SourceForge. It supports circuit drawing, layout developing and circuit simulation. It is available for free download.

Dia – Dia is a basic drawing software suitable for drawing block diagrams. They provide access to some basic and important components too. This software is only for a beginner or a new entrant in the electronics circuit drawing arena. I consider this software good for drawing block diagrams.Software has a GPL license and is made for Mac and Linux. I don’t know if they have a Windows version.

SmartDraw – Free software for drawing electronics schematics. This software is from SmartDraw LLC which develops high end drawing softwares and CAD softwares. The free version is a tool for promoting their paid versions. So you may not expect great/advanced features in the free version.

Pspice – Student Version – You all know about Pspice – the simulation software. Follow that link to get a free student version of the Pspice.

ProfiCAD – is a free, basic tool for drawing. I haven’t used this yet, well try out and tell me.

Paid/Enterprise Softwares:

Tina – Tina is an affordable solution for small industries and freelancers. Facilitates circuit drawing, layout developments, simulation and other features. Real time testing of circuits is another notable feature.

Orcad – a highly popular software from Cadence for circuit drawing, layout development and simulation.

LTSpice – is a simulation software from Linear. Schematic development, spice simulation, waveform viewer and many other features.

Altera– has a lot of softwares for your various needs. They have softwares for Embedded design (NIOS II), DSP design software (DSP Builder). For logic design they have Quartus II and ModelSim.

PCB Pool– They don’t provide any softwares. This link is in fact a list of softwares for PCB design.

So I guess I have compiled a good enough list of circuit drawing softwares, which can be used for electronics circuit drawing, schematic layout drawing, wiring diagram drawing etc. I will add more softwares to this list if you can suggest it through our comments section.

Thanks a lot for this page! As an oldtimer, I started drawing using the software DRAW!, which was very good, I’d say. Unforunately not available any moore as far as I know.
Being an European, I would like to use the IEC symbols (to which the US has agreed, but isn´t supporting avtively). So I often have to draw my own library, but that´s OK as long as drawing is possible and descently easy.
Again: THANKS!

I am searching for this free circuit diagram drawing softwares list for the last few days. I think XCircuit and SmartDraw would be more useful for my requirement. Thank you so much for sharing this list.

hello dear,
please , i like to get program to can draw and understand electronic circuit
8051 Simulator
PCB Design and Layout Software
Electronic circuit design and simulation software list
thank you very much
and good bye
khaled nour

Fritzing is an open-source initiative to support designers, artists, researchers and hobbyists to work creatively with interactive electronics. We are creating a software and website in the spirit of Processing and Arduino, developing a tool that allows users to document their prototypes, share them with others, teach electronics in a classroom, and to create a pcb layout for professional manufacturing.

Thanks very much! I have been wanting software like this but I have not found what I need with google, as there are just too many hits to sort through– a problem I often have with google and other search engines when I don’t have time to enter complex search words etc.

I am sure this will ease my work load immensely, and give me a chance to see “what is out there”, so I will know what to buy when I need more than a limited free program.

Eagle also has free version which is also very very useful for beginners.you can do complete medium sized project in that version of software. I recently downloaded eagle free version and did my three college projects on it for the first time. Considering me as a naive , eagle was very user friendly & simple to use.